Review: Native Instruments FM8 Transient Attacks

One of Native Instruments’ latest KORE SOUNDPACKS is FM8 Transient Attacks, a KORE sound library featuring cutting-edge FM8 sounds for modern electronic music production, ranging from dirty electro basses to otherworldly FM grime at the touch of the Morph pad.

For those not familiar with the KORE product range, the software part of KORE includes six Native Instruments sound engines (REAKTOR, MASSIVE, ABSYNTH, FM8, KONTAKT and GUITAR RIG) and provides ready-to-play sounds that can be easily browsed and tweaked from the interface. KORE SoundPacks are expansion packs for KORE products such as KORE 2 and the free KORE Player.

As its name suggests, FM8 Transient Attacks delivers new sounds using the FM8 audio engine.

The product page reads:

the sounds of FM8 TRANSIENT ATTACKS have been meticulously crafted to deliver extremely diverse yet exceptionally playable FM bass, leads, percussion, arpeggiated sounds and more. Taking advantage of the parameter-driven nature of FM synthesis, the morphing functions of FM8 and KORE have been extensively incorporated into the sound design, allowing everything from instant sound adjustment to radical transitions and giving you a total of 1,600 sound variations.

FM8 Transient Attacks comes with 200 exclusive KoreSounds (not available in FM8 or KORE 2 factory libraries) and each sound has 8 variations.

FM8 Transient Attacks in KORE Player.

Both FM8’s sound morphing feature and KORE’s sound variations have been used to allow for a wide range of sounds. Some of the variations sound nothing like the initial preset and by morphing between them you can create lovely expressive, dynamic and moving sounds.

You might not always get the exact sound you’re looking for, but each KoreSound is categorized in several ways making it easier to find the sound you’re after. KORE’s Sound Browser also lets you rate each sound so you’ll find be able to find your favorite presets later, simply by sorting the sounds by rating.

KoreSounds in FM8 Transient Attacks

25 arpeggiated sounds.

35 bass sounds.

20 drums and percussion sounds.

20 mallets and bells.

5 chord sounds.

35 lead sounds.

25 pads and choirs.

20 polyphonic keyboard sounds.

15 sfx and soundscape sounds.

FM8 Transient Attacks is available as a download in for $59 USD / €49 EUR. You can use this SoundPack in KORE 2 & the free KORE Player, as well the full version of FM8.

So what do I think?

I’ve spent a few hours playing with this SoundPack in the KORE Player, and KORE’s hands-on, easy to control interface is an absolute joy to play with (if you haven’t tried the free KORE Player yet, you can download the software including a 300MB sound library from Native Instruments).

Warm pads, harsh leads, organic fx… I love the sound of FM, or rather, I love well programmed FM sounds.

Native Instruments did a splendid job with these quality KoreSounds. There is much diversity in the 200 sounds, as well as within the sound variations of each preset. Just check the audio demos on the FM8 Transient Attacks page to hear how versatile and expressive these sounds are.

If you like lush pads, punchy bass and rhythmic soundscapes, FM8 Transient Attacks is the right SoundPack for you.